BUDAPEST -HUNGARY

When I was for two days in Budapest I fell in love with this city ! I can't say why, but it was such a charming town and people were all so friendly. We stayed for two nights in the Ibis Hotel which fortunately was located in the center of Budapest. In our free time I could travel on the bus for free because I was over 65 and I was not even Hungarian ! In my own country I have to pay for seniors ! I also found Budapest very modern, there was Wifi nearly everywhere, it looked clean and I tried to see as much as possible in this short time and therefore took a sightseeing bus, which I could use the whole day. It was so nice to sit on the top and have a nice view over the streets and houses.

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AWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND NEWS 14 SEPTEMBER

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS


Weekend

It doesn't happen very often, but this weekend I had to play my grandma role ! Now my Grandson will be 9 and is not a baby anymore.

He arrived with our son on Saturday afternoon, because he is a keen football player (soccer) and had to play before they left for Brussels.

Anyway, they just arrived in time to eat a Brussels' waffle with blueberry jam and whipped creme which I had prepared for Toby because he loves it !  We were really lucky it was a warm sunny weekend and there were many festivities for families going on. In Waterloo we had the Farmer's fest and there were also many animals and games and a lot to eat. Toby and I went there, while his Dad wanted to go shopping and Mr. G. wanted his bed for a nap.



He did very well on these torture machines as I would call them. He is quite tall, 1.50 for his still 8 years !



Then he tried games made out of wood, and had a lot of fun.



We wandered around and saw all kind of animals, chicks very cute and chicken, rabbits, geese,sheep etc



and not to forget ice cream ! Then we returned home.



In the evening we went for Mussels with chips it is the season now, Toby choose spaghetti of course as all  children, and my son had two pots of mussels, because after 5 it's "all you can eat" for mussels. I had enough with one pot it was already huge !

The next day was a Horse show fest, also with a lot to eat to drink and horses of all breeds !



Before we left,  he put on what his Dad had bought for him the day before,  for the new football season. As Toby is growing so fast, he needed a new one. We admired it all and then after breakfast we went to see the horse shows,  just in the next little town. This time Mr. G came with us, it was the first time since his hip operation that he dared to go for a walk.



Father and son



While my son snail walked with Mr. G, I tried not to loose Toby,  the jumping flea  from spot to spot, until he stopped and wanted to shoot with darts on balloons. I bought him 7 darts for 5 € and he shot 5 balloons. Not bad at all, didn't know that we had a dart specialist in the family. He could choose something. He didn't like anything and asked me again for 5 € which I didn't have. I choose a mignon, because he wanted nothing and I didn't want him to take nothing. Finally I got the mignon which later I hang in my car.







Some poneys



and a part of the show.

We returned home for lunch and then went visiting Toby's little friend Benji and his parents. We spent a nice afternoon on their terrace and ate a cake and then it was already time to say good bye and father and son returned to Amsterdam. To my pleasure, Toby only left reluctantly he would have preferred to stay a bit longer !

BLUE AS MODERN ART ?

Hoping for an easy word to knit around a nice story, I read that the prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “blue.” and the worst : Talk about the first blue object you see when you sit down to write your post. Blue is an easy word, but not in my case !

I am sitting on my chair and look around me and there is absolutely NO blue around me ! Not a single spot, nothing I have yellow, orange, red, violet, wood colour, black and beige but no blue !

In fact I don't like blue as a decoration color, I love blue skies and blue oceans or blue lakes, but not blue sofas or chairs or anything else.

Therefore I looked in my photo file : "miscellaneous" in which I had filed all pictures I didn't know where I had taken them or what they were. The worst were these two :






The only thing I know is that they were taken in March, but I have no idea what it could be ! Besides blue water and a blue handle I recognize nothing. Have you any idea ??

I think if nobody finds out I will create a new file "Modern Art" !

Linking to SOCS-Blue

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

It was Mireilles turn to feed 3 hungry girls after scrabble with delicious Belgian  cake and coffee. I was third on 4 always better then the last one !

I have 6 aqua gym classes to catch up, because I went on holidays when everybody was there. I thought I would go Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Which I did. The class where I was only guest, was not as nice as ours, all sour looking women and not a smile. The animator was a girl from the Philippines and she was very nice as last !

Sir Arthur (or also rebaptized Brexit, because he never knows if he wants to stay inside or go out) was really not in a good shape, he had lost a lot of weight and didn't eat very well on top he had his eyes watering. Strangely he didn't protest too much when I pushed him in the carrier and took him to my good old vet who I have now for over 25 years. We could take him out of the cage without getting killed, and she stated that he had bad teeth and also needed an antibiotic shot. As all old cats (he will be 18) he has kidney troubles. I told her to do what is necessary but not more, that's what she did and when I picked him up, he was still a bit asleep and wiggle waggled in this corner where he had never slept so far !



Poor Arthur in the car, and then at home recovering.

Fortunately the vet has done a good job because now he eats again and gets slowly back to his own self. We love our Arthur so much that we were very worried.

I had to renew my passport, had applied in July for an appointment and got it for September ! I had all my papers ready and made a photocopy of everything in case they needed more then one.

I knew this borough where the embassy was,  very well when my father worked for the EU, and the embassies of several countries are now there. It took me an hour to get there because of "normal" traffic, it was only 16 km. I didn't recognize anything, didn't even know where I was ! Of course since 60 years everything has changed. All the old beautiful houses were gone and were replaced as everywhere by the standard boxes.  Fortunately my GPS guided me.

I was lucky and found a parking space close to the embassy.



Just  in front of an abandonned new built with graffitis written on the walls against the National extremists and the French President Macron. Also something with dear Donald.



Here was the German embassy, the Morrocan and the Swedish



Some clever person had opened a restaurant/snack here for the people working around.

Everything went very smooth, the employee was very friendly, I left my fingerprints, signed the papers, said good by and left. Now it will take from 5 to 6 weeks until I get my new passport back.

Miss GPS showed me another way to drive home, much shorter and quicker. Suddenly my phone rang, I stopped the car and answered. It was the embassy's employee who asked if I could come back because I had signed with my family name and not with my maiden name !! I really got angry since 50 years I have always signed like that on all papers and documents and even on my old passport, and now suddenly I should learn a new signature ! Crazy ! But as law is law, and rules are rules and everybody is narrow minded, I have to go back tomorrow and sign with a new signature !! Between us I have the whole night to exercise a new one !!

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

THE SMALL BED OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON

As you may know, I live in the historical town Waterloo, where the Duke of Wellington an Anglo-Irish military commander and British politician signed the defeat of Napoleon and ended the battle of Waterloo in this house, which today is the Wellington museum.

The oldest inhabitants of Waterloo, when they were young boys, remember the times when the house was just open  and not yet a museum and they played inside and faked to sleep in Wellingtons bed !

Today it is protected behind the red cord and of course you have to pay an entrance fee. 



The bed seemed very small to me and I thought the boys who "slept" in there must have been not taller then a 10 year old or measure 1.50 m certainly not more.. Everybody looking at this bed laughed and said that such an important man was so small, but it is also true that people were smaller in the past and that's why the bed looks as if it was for a child.

Therefore I was quite surprised when I read that in fact, "Wellington was of “middle height, being about 1.79 m  (5.9 ft), but his shoulders were broad, his arms long, and his whole frame firmly knit, and capable of fatigue in an extraordinary degree"

I think the size is not so small for this time, Napoleon was 10 cm smaller only 1.69 m. (5.5ft)



His cape is also exposed



a bust of him



and a wax figure when he signed. Of course there are many other things to see.

It's still a mistery to me how Wellington could sleep in this small bed ? Did he sleep sitting as many people did because of the wiggs, but he never wore one, or did he fold himself and slept on one side ? Nobody not even Google could give me the answer. But he must have slept well in his small bed because he was 83 when he died !

If you are an Iron Duke enthusiast, you can drink in 53 pubs called the Duke of Wellington, as well as 37 that go by an unadorned "Wellington". And that’s just in England. The Duke of Wellington is the oldest licenced pub in Melbourne, and now serves a variety of gastropub food. And then of course there are the countless pubs called simply The Duke. Just don't feel the need to get a pint in each one !!


Linking to Linda Hills One Liner Wednesday

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

You have the choice .....



to cut off your head



or your right hand (in case you stole something)

Seen in the Citadel of Dinant


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